Archive - Oct 25, 2007

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FIREFIGHTERS STAND BY as an emptied tanker car is lowered back onto its wheels Wednesday at the site of Monday’s train wreck in Middlebury. The cars were all expected to be set back on the tracks and hauled away sometime Thursday.Independent photo/Trent Campbell

October 25, 2007

By JOHN FLOWERS

MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Railway officials have tentatively cited a broken section of rail line as the cause of a train accident that toppled 18 cargo cars in downtown Middlebury on Monday, sending an undetermined amount of gasoline into the Otter Creek.

Fire, police and state environmental officials, fearing an explosion or adverse health effects from breathing gasoline fumes from the spill, cordoned off most of downtown Middlebury to traffic for almost 24 hours after the 2 p.m. accident. During that time crews evaluated the site and began moving the rail car wreckage while keeping the gasoline spill to a minimum.

As of Wednesday afternoon officials said they hoped to have the line open again by late Thursday.

While the accident temporarily inconvenienced motorists and an estimated 400 to 500 residents of the Cross Street/Main Street/South Pleasant Street neighborhoods who had to be evacuated (see related story), Middlebury officials breathed a collective sigh of relief realizing that no one had been hurt and that things could have been a whole lot worse.

MIDDLEBURY — Monday’s train accident transformed downtown Middlebury from its usual beehive of activity to an almost eerie no-man’s land.

Local police and fire officials blocked off a whopping 30 roads leading into, and out of, the core village area while investigators and clean-up crews combed through the toppled rail tankers along the Otter Creek near Merchants Row.

Motorists accustomed to traveling through Middlebury via Routes 7, 125 and 30 found themselves making detours.

Police established two routes around Middlebury for passenger traffic, according to Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley. One led from Route 7 through Buttolph Acres, connecting with High Street. The other, southbound, was from Route 7 to Stewart Lane, followed by Seminary Street to Foote Street to Route 7 south of the downtown.

Vermont State Police stopped commercial traffic at the intersection of Routes 7 and 17 and routed southbound commercial traffic out to Route 22A. Northbound traffic was stopped at Route 125 in East Middlebury before it got into town and it was diverted to Route 116.

MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury College has played a strong supporting role in renovating the Town Hall Theater (THT). Now the liberal arts institution is jumping into the act in an even bigger way.

College and theater officials confirmed on Monday that they had formed a partnership that will give the institution and its student body regular use of the THT for productions, rehearsals and mentorships. The college in turn will provide the THT with $1 million over the next 20 years to give the theater a strong financial footing as it prepares for major interior renovations that should allow for an opening next summer.

“It gives the college an extra place to perform as well as a wonderful connection to downtown Middlebury,” THT Executive Director Douglas Anderson said. “We see it as a win-win situation.”

Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz agreed.

“There are a whole bunch of things we see happening that will bring the college and town arts scenes together,” Liebowitz said. “We are pleased to help make this happen.”

This is the third substantial contribution the college will have made to THT, a 124-year-old building off Merchants Row that is being renovated for use as a performing arts center. The college previously donated $125,000 in both 2001 and 2006.

Boosters have set a $5 million price tag for the project and are just $130,000 short of meeting a $500,000 anonymous challenge grant to reach the fund-raising finish line. Anderson stressed the college’s $1 million commitment should be seen as separate from the effort to match the $500,000 challenge grant.